The present invention relates to a meteorological radar installed on board an aircraft.
With reference to FIG. 1, an on-board meteorological radar 1 in the nose 4 of an aircraft includes, as known in the art, an antenna 2 fixed to a mechanism 3, as well as electronic means (not illustrated on FIG. 1) of forming a radar beam.
The mechanism 3 is fixed to a bulkhead 5 dividing a non-pressurized zone 6 from a pressurized zone 7 of the fuselage 8. The antenna 2 and the mechanism 3 are fitted in the non-pressurized zone 6, between a radome 10, forming the forward extremity of the fuselage 8, and the bulkhead 5. The electronic means are, for their part, fitted in the pressurized zone 7.
The antenna 2 includes a panel capable of emitting and receiving radar waves in the zone situated forward of the aircraft. To that effect, the mechanism 3 provides rotation of the panel around the yaw axis OZ as well as around the pitch axis OY of the aircraft.
Due to the rotation of the panel around two axes, this type of meteorological radar presents, in utilization, a significant spatial requirement that can be likened to the volume of a sphere. Thus, in order to accommodate the meteorological radar 1 and allow it to function in the non-pressurized zone 6, the shape of the radome 10 of an aircraft equipped with such a meteorological radar 1 is generally of a hemispherical type with dimensions imposed by the space needed for the installation and functioning of the meteorological radar 1.
This is detrimental to the pursuit of an optimum aerodynamic profile of the aircraft, since with a radome of a hemispherical type, the separation of the boundary layer of the air takes place at a distance very close to the forward extremity of the fuselage 8 of the aircraft, and the aerodynamic drag is thereby augmented, hence increasing the fuel consumption.